Antigone and gender

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! //Nomos// and //physis// and gender roles * Suppose you believe gender roles are ''arbitrary and can be changed''. In that case, do you believe they come from //[[nomos]]// or //[[physis]]//? * Suppose, on the other hand, you believe that gender roles are ''fixed and unalterable''. In that case, do you believe they come from //[[nomos]]// or //[[physis]]//? Different people have different opinions about where gender roles come from! In fact, people have strong opinions. [[Next->Context in Athens]]

//Nomos// is "law" in the sense of "custom" or "what people have decided on." If gender roles come from //nomos//, then they are just what we have decided on. Presumably, we could decide on something different if we wanted to. [[Home<-back]]

//Physis// is nature, or what God or the gods ordain, or the way the universe is constructed. If gender roles come from //physis//, then they are baked into the universe. They perhaps come from the biology of men and women. If gender roles come from //physis//, then they cannot be changed, because nature cannot be changed. [[Home<-Back]]

!In ancient Athens In ancient Athens, the traditional gender role of women was to keep to the home. !!Ismene, Antigone's sister For example, Ismene, Antigone’s sister, stays in the home. At first, she refuses to help her sister out in burying Polyneices. She’s obedient. She’s respectable. She conforms to her traditional role !!The democratic assembly <figure><a title="Nikthestoned, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pnyx,_Athens_-_Panorama.jpg"><img width="1024" alt="Pnyx, Athens - Panorama" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Pnyx%2C_Athens_-_Panorama.jpg/1024px-Pnyx%2C_Athens_-_Panorama.jpg"></a><figcaption></figcaption>The Pnyx in Athens -- not much to see today, but this is where the world's first democracy assembled to discuss affairs and vote.</figure> On the other hand, politics was men’s work in ancient Athens. In the democratic assembly, only men took part. [[Next->Creon]]

!Creon's attitude towards women Early in the play, when they spar with each other, Creon says to Antigone: > “Pass, then, to the world of the dead, and, it thou must needs love, love them. While I live, ''no woman shall rule me''.” (emphasis added) Notice Creon's concern for his power is not just a matter of civic affairs — it's a matter of gender as well. Creon doesn't want to be pushed around by a woman! [[Next->Creon 2]]

Creon's son Haemon is engaged to marry Antigone. Like Ismene, Haemon is a moderating force -- he's trying to turn down the temperature and get everyone to reconcile: But Creon says to his son Haemon, pushing his hard-line attitude: > ... disobedience is the worst of evils. This it is that ruins cities; this makes homes desolate; by this, the ranks of allies are broken into head-long rout; but, of the lives whose course is fair, the greater part owes safety to obedience. Therefore we must support the cause of order, and ''in no wise suffer a woman to worst us''. Better to fall from power, if we must, by a man's hand; ''then we should not be called weaker than a woman''." (emphasis added) [[Next->Women in Greek Tragedy]]

!Women in Greek Tragedy So, in real life in Athens, women kept to private affairs, and did not speak out much in public. And yet in Greek tragedy, we see daring and heroic women standing up to men in the public sphere, and even defying them. Remember that tragedy ''teaches'' the citizens of democratic Athens — it educates them to go listen to issues and speak and vote in the assembly. So the portrayal of strong, daring, outspoken disobedient women figures on the tragic stage is part of this education. Also keep in mind that tragedy portrays the very worst imaginable things happening. For example, Creon tries to save the state, but instead he destroys his family. But also, the tragic stage depicts ''powerful, daring, disobedient women.'' Worth pondering!